


Heart/Gear

by whalebone



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Cybernetics, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Recovery, Robot Sex, Robot/Human Relationships, Touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:20:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27819655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whalebone/pseuds/whalebone
Summary: They’ve both been gone, Cassian thought, each to their own emptiness. But now Kay was rebuilding Cassian as surely as Cassian had rebuilt him.After Scarif, K-2SO is finally rebuilt.
Relationships: Cassian Andor/K-2SO
Comments: 11
Kudos: 61
Collections: Star Wars Rare Pairs 2020





	Heart/Gear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bright_Elen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bright_Elen/gifts).



It was late when Cassian returned to his quarters on _Home One_ , and the ship’s corridors had been dimmed for its night cycle. The only light was the blue-green glow of a distant nebula through the viewport. It was a big change from the heavy sunlight and rich green smells of Yavin 4. 

He walked as fast as he could, leaning heavily on the cane to take the weight off his hip and leg, gritting his teeth against the pain. He knew that he should take his time and not risk setting his recovery back even further. But he couldn’t bear to slow down, not now. Not when he finally had Kay back.

Cassian stopped in front of his door and drew in a deep, shaking breath. Kay was back. He was here, in Cassian’s quarters, where Cassian had asked him to be. It felt impossibly huge.

He closed his eyes and breathed out. Opened them, and touched the door control. The door slid across with a soft hiss, and he stepped into the room. It was dim, like the corridors, lit by a single lamp and the cold, pale light of K-2’s photoreceptors. The droid was standing by Cassian’s desk, his huge bulk taking up most of the space. Cassian’s heart caught; the small room had felt cavernous these last few months.

K-2 stepped forward when the door slid closed, his head tilted in that questioning way he had. “You were gone for two-point-three hours,” he complained.

Cassian smiled, partly in reassurance, but mostly because Kay was _here_ , and he was _complaining_ , which meant he was truly, truly back. The disbelief and fear and worry of the last days suddenly shook apart inside him, leaving a strange rush of joy and wonder. He reached for K-2 with his free hand, resting his palm against the cool durasteel of his breastplate.

“I’m sorry,” he said, still smiling. “You know how the medbay can be. And I had to report to Draven, about you. He authorised your new chassis. Apparently he’s missed you making a fuss.”

K-2 made a grumbling noise. “I do not ‘make a fuss’. And Bodhi Rook had to leave seventy-two minutes ago. I have been trying to reach your files but he was not able to give me network access.”

“I’ll network you tomorrow,” Cassian promised. “And you can get all the details you need.”

“Good. Cassian...” Kay lifted one hand and placed it over Cassian’s, against his chest. Cassian’s heart thudded painfully against his ribs when metal fingers curled lightly over his own with a careful pressure. “Bodhi said they— Bodhi, Jyn Erso, and the Guardians— have been trying to speak to you.”

Guilt hung in Cassian’s chest. He shrugged carefully. “We do speak. Bodhi helped fix you up.”

“That isn’t what he meant, as I’m sure you realise. They are worried about you.”

“They don’t know me.” 

“But they want to know you.” A pause. Kay’s thumb brushed a cool line over Cassian’s wrist. He closed his eyes and focused on that, trying not to think about the past few months, or the impossibility of letting people close when things were so broken. “I would like to know them, as well.”

Cassian stared up at him. “You would?”

“Yes. And I think it would be good for you.”

“Of course you do,” Cassian muttered.

“I have been trying to understand what happened on Scarif, based on my observations of your injuries, and of Bodhi’s. I understand that the mission was successful—”

“It was,” Cassian interrupted, too quickly. His stomach clenched, and a sickly wave of nausea washed over him. He did not want to talk about Scarif. Blinding heat. Melshi. Pao. Tonc. The data tower. _Climb, climb…_ “It was. The Death Star, it… it’s gone.”

“Yes, Bodhi said as much. I am sorry I did not see that.”

Cassian stared at his hand, dwarfed by Kay’s. He swallowed. “Me too. I… we didn’t know if we could get you back. Your back-up was corrupted.”

“Then you have done a commendable job. Far better than your first attempt at mangling my programming.”

“I didn’t ‘mangle’ anything,” Cassian protested, lifting his head to glare up at Kay’s face. The droid tilted his head in a way that Cassian always interpreted as a smug smile, and an answering smile tugged at his mouth. 

“That is a matter of opinion,” Kay said loftily. “But this time, luckily, most of my subroutines seem to be present.”

“Most?” Cassian frowned, and the smile slipped from his face. He’d been so _careful_ , for all that he’d wanted Kay back as soon as possible. 

“Some of my old movement subroutines seem to have been wiped. But judging by the remaining notation, I did not find those movements particularly comfortable. I will rebuild if they become necessary.” Kay’s thumb brushed lightly over Cassian’s wrist joint, and he nodded, swallowing hard.

“Now,” the droid said briskly, “since I do not have access to your medical files I am going to need to trust that you will be honest with me. You are in pain.”

Instinct told Cassian to shake his head and deny it. But he was leaning heavily on the cane, and he knew that Kay would read pain in the lines around his eyes and his mouth, and in the set of his shoulders. He sighed. “You don’t need to ask me that.”

“True, but I thought I’d give you a chance to answer.” Kay moved his hand from over Cassian’s and grasped his shoulder, stooping further to peer at him. His lenses clicked and whirred, and Cassian had to squint a little in the brightness of his photoreceptors. He should have sighed again in frustration, but instead he felt a strange joy rise in him. He had missed Kay cataloguing him, picking out every detail, _caring_ about every detail.

“Where are your injuries?” Kay asked abruptly. “Your right leg?”

“Hip,” said Cassian grimly. “And spine. I had implants, but it’s a long recovery.” It would be months, at least, until he could return to active service. The thought loomed like a dark tunnel.

“You were shot?”

He shook his head. “I fell. Landed on a beam. After… after you—” He cut his eyes away from Kay’s optics, his throat tightening. Over and over again his dreams had showed him that blast door slamming closed. 

“So you are, I assume, meant to be resting?” Kay tilted his head. “I have been back less than a standard day and already you need looking after. Sit down.”

Slowly, Cassian lowered himself to sit on his bunk, hissing in pain as his hip tightened and throbbed and his lower-back seized. It had got easier, over the weeks, but any change in position still brought with it an assault on his muscles and tendons. He had used to bear pain so much easier, hiding even a flicker of expression, but somehow that hadn’t been possible this time. It had felt as though his body were displaying what was happening inside him, his bones scraped raw with grief.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” he admitted when Kay knelt down before him, metal knees clanking against the floor.

“Well that is ridiculous. You have all the empirical evidence you could wish for. I am very much here.” He touched Cassian’s knee, his fingertips just resting there. Cassian brought his hand to Kay’s faceplate. It was different; the old faceplate had had a scuff just over the left photoreceptor, and a scratch on the right side of the vocoder. But even though it was immobile and incapable of expression, there was still something so essentially _Kay_ in it. Cassian could not have said what it was: a particular warmth to the optical glow, perhaps, or something in the angle of his neck. Cassian ran his fingers around the edge of his optics, over the vocoder grill, finding the pins below Kay’s chin.

“You’re here,” he said, and his voice cracked. His mouth twisted into a grimace that was almost a smile.

Kay raised his hand from Cassian’s knee to his cheek, his fingers cool and achingly familiar. Then he grasped Cassian’s face in both hands, his optical lenses clicking. Cassian held still, hardly daring to breathe, his heart aching at the familiarity of Kay’s attention. The droid trailed his thumbs over Cassian’s cheekbones and over the arches of his eyebrows. With uncanny delicacy he brushed the soft skin beneath Cassian’s eyes, no doubt registering the depth to their lines and shadows, committing the data to his new memory banks. A shiver went up Cassian’s spine.

When K-2’s thumb stroked over his lips, Cassian’s heart stuttered painfully. He couldn’t help his lips parting a little, his breath ragged. Kay stayed still, his thumb a weight against Cassian’s lower lip. Cassian’s heart was loud in his ears, and he knew Kay would register the rapid beat of his pulse.

Cassian’s tongue darted out, touched the tip of Kay’s thumb. His fans whirred. His fingers moved along the edge of Cassian’s jaw, over his beard— longer, now, since he hadn’t shaved in weeks— down the side of his neck to his shirt, pausing at the top button.

“Please,” Cassian said, before Kay could even formulate a question.

Kay’s fingers were still gentle as he unbuttoned Cassian’s shirt. He shivered when the cool air hit his skin, and tried to hide a wince when he moved to shrug the shirt off. Kay pulled it loose and dropped it unceremoniously on the floor.

 _“Cassian.”_ Kay’s hands were cool too, when they moved over his shoulders and his chest, following the arch of his ribs. More prominent than they should be, and Cassian knew that Kay noticed, but mercifully the droid didn’t comment. Instead he pressed his palm to Cassian’s chest, over his bounding heart. A soft gust of air left his vents, like a release of pressure. “Your heart rate is elevated.”

“That’s pretty normal, considering what you’re doing.”

“I know. I am… enjoying it. And I need to tune my new sensors to your exact ranges.” His thumb moved in a soft arc, back and forth. “It may take a while to calibrate them properly.”

“I’m not exactly busy, these days. I could do with a project.”

“Yes.” Kay’s hand slid lower, against Cassian’s side. “You said you have implants now? May I see?”

Cassian nodded and shifted painfully, so that he was sitting on the bunk at an angle and Kay could see his back. He had only seen a couple of images of the implant: a small metal panel in the centre of his lower-back, behind which were a series of complex cybernetics replacing the damaged parts of his spinal cord. One day it would feel no different, his nerves linking perfectly with the cybernetic fibres. But it was a new weakness to account for, something he needed to learn to maintain and care for, and healing was taking longer than he had hoped.

“Once they’re happy with the integration and the healing around the site, they’ll add a layer of synthskin,” he said.

“Hm.” Kay touched his side again, carefully. “I would like to see the schematics for this.”

“Course.” Cassian had schematics for every part of K-2’s body, after all. That thought was like a bright spark in his head; he was like Kay now, in this small way. “I need someone to be able to troubleshoot it.”

“I hope you don’t plan on damaging it too often.” Kay moved his fingers over Cassian’s skin, towards the implant. The skin around the edge had been tender and bruised for weeks, but now just felt a little sensitive. Cassian held still when Kay touched the place where metal became skin.

A brief, wild image flashed through Cassian’s mind: Kay removing the protective plate over the implant, exposing the tiny mechanisms and delicate wiring. If he touched them, would Cassian feel the way Kay did, when he reached into his chest and stroked his sensors?

Kay took his hand away. “Are you in pain? Your breathing has—”

“No,” said Cassian quickly. “No, I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt any more. I’m just… aware of it.”

He shivered, again, and turned back around. K-2 looked at him, and Cassian could see worry in the exact tilt of his lenses, the angle of his neck and shoulders. He reached for him and caught one large hand in both of his. He stroked Kay’s knuckles, his palm, curled his fingers into his wrist joint, stroked his arm to his elbow. 

“I want to touch you,” Cassian said. “And I want you to touch me. I want, I want—”

“Lie down.” Kay put a hand to his sternum. Cassian lay down slowly, his back and hip pulling at him. He had to lie on his side, not wanting to put pressure on the implant. Kay stroked his side, and then reached down to untie Cassian’s boots and tug them off, following by his socks. The droid lingered on his feet for a moment, touching the curve of Cassian’s instep and the ridge of his ankle bone. 

Cassian realised, suddenly, that he was hard. Arousal felt strange, now, bright and vivid after months of pain and the numb suffocation of grief. He needed more, immediately, and before he could even articulate it Kay’s hands came to his waist. Removing Cassian’s trousers and underwear was more difficult with his injured hip and had to be done slowly, and he cursed impatiently when Kay eased then down as carefully as possible. But then he was finally naked, lying on his side on the narrow bunk, Kay looming over him, his big hands mapping the lines and angles of Cassian’s broken, changed body, illuminated in the cold light of his photoreceptors.

“I am sorry,” said Kay, running his fingers over the fractured scars at the crest of Cassian’s hip, not quite touching his achingly hard cock.

“For what?”

Kay’s fans churned, and Cassian felt a gust of excess warm air vent against his skin. “You were hurt, and I was not there.”

“You weren’t— Kay!” Cassian grabbed for Kay’s other hand. “Kay, you _died_ , so that Jyn and I could go on. We only managed it because of you. You saved us. And not just us.”

He had tried to tell the Council that, when they had convened to tell Cassian’s team that they would not punished for their actions on Scarif, but would instead be rewarded, and the dead properly memorialised. He had tried to tell them what Kay had done, and what it meant, but no one had listened. He may as well have been talking about a lost speeder. Afterwards, General Draven had squeezed his shoulder and Jyn had held his hand tightly, but it hadn’t helped.

Now he folded his fingers through Kay’s. “Never do that again. Promise me. Never again, Kay.”

Kay squeezed his hand. “That is not a promise I can make. I do not remember what I did, but I know I would do it again.”

Cassian’s eyes burned. Kay leaned down to him and pressed their heads together, the smooth curve of his skullplate beautifully cool against Cassian’s forehead. Cassian brought Kay’s hand to his mouth and kissed his knuckles, just as Kay continued stroking slowly over his hip, his thigh, the curve of his ass. 

When Kay finally, _finally_ wrapped his hand around Cassian’s cock he moaned, unable to control his own voice. Kay’s hand engulfed him from root to tip, stroking and squeezing, and it was the most wonderful thing Cassian had felt in his life. He clutched at Kay, running his hands over smooth durasteel, digging his fingertips into the gaps in his plating, thrusting helplessly into that perfect grip on his cock.

They’d both been gone, Cassian thought. Each of them to their own emptiness. But now Kay was rebuilding Cassian as surely as Cassian had rebuilt him. His body felt new under Kay’s hands, wires reconnecting, gears minutely adjusted, circuits completing. 

“You’re here, you’re here,” he choked, pressing his mouth desperately to Kay’s faceplate. “I brought you back, you’re here…”

“With you.” Kay tightened his grip, twisted slightly. “With you, Cassian.”

And Cassian fell apart, heat rushing through him as he came. 

A soft buzzing noise seemed to fill his ears. His limbs were heavy with lassitude, but a warm sense of peace was rising in his chest. The last time he’d felt that peace, he’d been watching the glorious light of the Death Star on the horizon.

Long fingers stroked through his hair and Cassian blinked his eyes open. The Death Star receded into the distance of his mind. He curled his own fingers into Kay’s wrist joint, as though to anchor himself to him.

“You’ll stay?”

“If you promise to get enough sleep.” 

He had barely slept without the help of drugs for some time, but already Cassian could feel it tugging at his eyes. “Fine, if you insist. I should clean up first…” He tried to push himself up, but Kay put a firm hand on his shoulder.

“No, stay there. _I_ will do it. Honestly, how did you ever cope without me?”

 _I didn’t,_ Cassian thought, but didn’t say. He wasn’t sure he needed to. Kay brushed over his hair again, his fingers lingering. “Glad you’re back.”

“As am I, even if I did miss all the excitement.”

“Yeah, well. Maybe the next time a Jedi blows up an Empire weapon you can have a front-row seat.”

“I shall hold you to that. Now go to sleep. I will be here when you wake up.”

Kay’s fingertips touched Cassian’s lips, and he summoned enough energy to kiss him. “I’ll hold you to that,” he promised.


End file.
